Schools

Mary Queen of Angels Regional Catholic School, providing a quality education for students in Pre-K, UPK, Kindergarten and Grades 1 through 8, will hold a Super Sunday Open House from 12:15 to 2:15 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7, at the school, located at 170 Rosewood Terrace (off George Urban Boulevard), Cheektowaga.

Highlighting the open house will be a tour of the school, which will give guests an opportunity to view the innovative Media Arts Center, SmartBoard demonstrations, music and art rooms, science lab and much more. Refreshments will be served. Guests will also have an opportunity to meet students, teachers and the school principal, MaryAlice Bagwell.

The Niagara Frontier Automobile Dealers Association and Erie Community College will host the 2016 NFADA Ron Smith Memorial AutoTech Competition on Saturday, Jan. 16. The competition features teams of two high school automotive seniors who will go through a series of diagnostic, workstation and performance tests to measure their automotive technical skills and abilities. The WNY Ford Dealers are the vehicle sponsors and will be providing six 2016 Ford F150s for the students to compete on.

The competition, to be held at the Erie Community College-Vehicle Technology Training Center at 5885 Big Tree Road in Orchard Park, will be open to the public beginning at 9 a.m. It concludes with an awards ceremony at approximately 3 p.m.

The annual Mary Queen of Angels Regional Catholic School Christmas play will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, in the Villa Maria College auditorium, 240 Pine Ridge Road, Buffalo. This year’s play, free and open to the public, is titled “O My Stars ... It’s Christmas!”

The school’s Universal Pre-K students will perform at 7 p.m., followed by Pre-K 3 & 4 students, and then the school band. The play will immediately follow the band performance.

Mary Queen of Angels School is located at 170 Rosewood Terrace, Cheektowaga. For more information, please visit www.mqangels.com or follow the school’s Facebook page for frequent updates.

AMHERST, N.Y. – Daemen College will launch in January a new advanced certificate program in executive leadership and change (ELC), which is designed to prepare working professionals for leadership positions in business, health professions, higher education, and nonprofit organizations.

“This new advanced certificate program will offer students a great opportunity to develop essential leadership skills and build competencies in areas that will be beneficial to career advancement,” said Dr. John S. Frederick, executive director of the Daemen Center for Executive Leadership and Change. “With this advanced training, students will be better positioned to take on leadership roles and be more marketable in the workplace.”

The 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials will be commemorated with a special lecture by renowned legal scholar John Q. Barrett, scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct 21 in the Daemen College Wick Campus Center Social Room.

“The 70th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials: What Happened Then and Why It Matters Now” will be addressed by Barrett, a noted expert on Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, the chief prosecutor of Nazi war criminals in Germany. The Daemen Paralegal Studies Speaker Series lecture is free and open to the public.

Fifty years after Jackson’s death, Barrett discovered and edited Jackson’s now acclaimed memoir, “That Man: An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt.” Barrett, a professor of law at St. John’s University, is currently writing a biography on Jackson, a Western New York native who is considered one of most revered lawyers in U.S. history.

U.S. Congressman Chris Gibson of New York, a decorated Army war veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, shared his vision and proposed strategy to counter national security threats, at a Daemen College Distinguished Leaders Lecture Series event held on Sept. 22.

Speaking before the Daemen community, area business leaders, veterans and members of the military, Gibson addressed the need to “secure our rights as a social contract, and to pursue an international policy of peace through strength and deterrence. We need to give our military and diplomatic leaders the tools to help shape policy in the Middle East and other trouble spots that threaten the United States.”

He added, “We have work to do to obtain deterrence and peace through strength. The men and women serving in our nation’s Armed Forces don’t expect much, but the least we can give them is the resources to do their critically important jobs.”

An important milestone in the growth of Daemen College was marked Sept. 17 with the official opening of its new Academic and Wellness Center, a $5.6 million refurbishment project that provides state-of-the-art learning facilities for health-related academic programs and fitness and recreational space for the college community.

The opening event included a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the completely refurbished building at 4433 Main St., located across the street from Daemen’s main campus.

“This is an exciting time at Daemen as we augment our exceptional facilities with the completion of this ambitious renovation project, which is a major step in expanding the college’s campus footprint,” said Daemen President Gary A. Olson. “We are excited to open the doors to this new building and to provide our students a world-class facility that exemplifies excellence on our campus.”